Dealing With That Thing Called Depression

You probably already know that Depression is one helluva good researcher. I mean, think about it. This is what Depression would encounter if it were human: Nasa, power-hungry politicians or some secret society will have hired it for its exceptional skills at getting to know somebody.

Have you experienced how it knows so much about you? Depression knows exactly what cards to play and what heart-strings to pull. It has an annoying habit of throwing convincing ideas into your head.

The trick is knowing which thought is your own and which is taken from a page out of Depression’s notebook. Admitted, I have had a stint with this ace researcher. If only it came with a hot Victoria Secret supermodel, I’d have been a little bit happier!

Anyway, let me cut to the chase and say Depression can indeed be dealt with and you don’t necessarily need a shrink to help you.

Friends: Support takes many forms, but friends are the best class of support you can ever have when depression comes calling. Not only will they take your mind off stuff, really good friends make you feel stupid, irrational and downright pathetic that you even felt depressed to begin with. It’s that kind of honesty and freedom of expression that cuts right through the weeds such an emotion nurtures and lets you see the truth of who you are.

Exercise: As counter-intuitive as this may sound, exercise is a cool way to beat the blues. If your depression is an army of highly intelligent robots who’ve just declared invasion, then exercise is Schwarzenegger who’s going to terminate ‘em before saying ‘Hasta la vista, baby’!
Exercise gets the blood going and carries endorphins all over the place. Three guesses what endorphins do for you… They make you feel happy. It can’t get any simpler than this. When your down, start jogging, or whatever it is you do to get your blood going. You can’t feel bad when you’re tired and have endorphins flying through your system.

Distraction: There’s nothing like a good ‘madechya look!’ to take the edge of depression. Of course, you’ve got to stay in that mode as long as you can. It’s like this: When you feel the bad guy creeping up—you know who I’m talking about by now—immediately and without any logical thought do something to distract yourself.
Not just anything, though. Get to work on that school or college project you’ve been putting off. Turn on the television and catch that movie you felt was too ‘joyful’ to see, take a walk around the neighborhood and photograph anything and everything. You get the idea, so all that’s left is to get started.

Ask: When you know you’re feeling down in the dumps and you also feel you can’t exactly defeat that feeling without some help, DO NOT KEEP FROM ASKING!
It’s the simplest trick in the book. When a King needs to defeat an army of barbarians, he doesn’t run into the fray waving his crown about and hoping the enemy will think he’s insane and so leave the nation!!
You’ve gotta ask for help. And if you’re the proud type who thinks they can overcome depression on their own, that’s good. Don’t blame yourself for being proud. However, make 100% certain that you can overcome your issue lest you fall into what that phrase says about pride going before a fall.

“My Aim”: What’s life without a compass? We’re all ships on the Ocean of discovery. Where do we go when we lose our way? When our compass starts to malfunction and our dreams break?
Nobody can say you’re wrong when you feel depressed during such times. But there is one person left in the world who’ll beg to differ. And that person is you. You alone are your worst critic or your best support.
Not because you can conquer anything all by yourself. But because you can choose to pursue a dream and stick to it like paper does to glue. Life is gonna get ‘sticky’, no doubt there, but it’s better than finding yourself wandering aimlessly through Life’s corridors, right? That’s why keeping an aim and trying to realize it, despite the many failures that come along, is the way to slap depression and call it rude names.

The Feel-o-meter: The name may be new, but the idea is as old as time. Watch your feelings or they’ll start to take over.
Depression is, in essence, a feeling. It thinks you’re too weak to rule and so steps in and does what it does best. If it isn’t depression, it’s going to be something else. So, the best approach you can take is to understand your feelings.
This is purely instinctual and no two people have it the same. It’s like looking at an antique statue from different angles. As you can imagine, no two people will have the exact same opinion about it.

In this spirit, depression falls into the rebellious gang of emotions. Don’t go shouting at yourself in the mirror in an attempt to wrest control. All you need do is understand what triggers you to feel sad or angry about something, and you’ll have gotten one step closer to kicking depression down the stairs.

After all is said and done, you’ll start to feel the change. And that’s a very important clue. The feeling of change for the better is indication you’re doing the right thing. After all, wishful thinking never got rid of relatives. How can you expect it to fare against depression? No connection between the two, mind you. Or, wait, is there?

Rely on your instincts, for there’s nobody in the Universe who knows what’s best for you than you.

Comments

Kindly forgive me, but I seriously think your article is crap, just the kind that fill expensive self help books. Who in his sane mind would feel like exercising when he has depressive or worse suicidal thoughts? Having suffered from depression for years, I could come out of it only by understanding root causes of the problem on my own, and a little medical help.

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About Bhakti

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About Joshua

Creativity is my swimming pool, and the fun is endless when I share it with the world. It's one of the things that make me want to write about books, movies, travel, great conversation, fashion and more. I like savoring the world, one bite at a time.